You might think of Memphis as the birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll, but it’s also on the frontlines of growing concerns about the bird flu in the U.S.
As a designated World Health Organization influenza research and surveillance center —one of seven that represent the WHO’s Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System — American physicians and scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in downtown Memphis are part of the national and international effort to monitor bird flu activity in animals and humans in the United States.
The Center also provides information that is key to the activities of Tennessee’s business leaders, public health and animal health agencies, as well as to conservation organizations, about how to prevent the spread of the bird flu.
St. Jude was designated as a WHO research center for studies on the ecology of influenzas in animals and birds in 1975. The designation means St. Jude researchers regularly work with WHO influenza experts globally and have access to a global biological database of flu viruses.
St. Jude plays a pivotal role in the world’s understanding of flu viruses infecting animals, and how they can shift and become dangerous to other animals and humans. They have also been part of the global team monitoring shifts in the current strain of avian flu virus since it was it was first identified by scientists more than 25 years ago.
Over the decades, the Center has collected a vast catalog of avian flu data (such as samples of local and national bird feces) that is shared globally, since flu viruses don’t stop at a country’s border. In 2003, St. Jude developed a potential candidate for avian flu vaccines and treatments for Americans and the rest of the world.
“Because we have been a WHO research center for decades, we are poised to move quickly to develop and test treatments and vaccines in case anything does change with this virus,” said Dr. Stacey Schultz-Cherry, a virologist and deputy director of the influenza collaborating center.
In 2021, a highly infectious and deadly avian virus strain emerged in North America. The virus has infected egg poultry flocks, forcing producers to cull millions of their birds, causing a spike in egg prices. In 2024, the virus, for the first time, spread to U.S. dairy cattle in 16 states and to other mammal species, like minks.
At least 67 people have been infected with the virus in the U.S. since 2024. Most of the cases are among people who worked on farms with inflected cows or poultry, and the virus, so far, isn’t easily transmissible among humans. However, one American who recently died, was infected with a strain of the bird flu that carried mutations that could make it more infectious among people.
Avian flu also poses a significant economic threat to Tennessee’s $6.5 billion poultry industry and the 27,000 jobs it sustains in nearly all 95 counties in the state. With 1,880 commercial broiler and breeder houses located on over 500 family farms, fears of an outbreak are already disrupting farmers and operations across the supply chain.
That’s why — as a designated WHO research center — St. Jude’s advanced research manufacturing center is recognized as a powerful resource in our nation’s response if the bird flu becomes more transmissible among people.